to pass christian

Friends, family, and random readers, this is a blog with (for now) the purpose of raising money for a trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi to build new houses and tear down old ones. There are far too few trees in this day in age so I thought I would keep this letter electronic.

Much of America seems to have forgotten, but the recovery from hurricane Katrina continues. On my journey to New Orleans last October, it became clear that the physical recovery work is far from complete. Neighborhoods are still empty except for the occasional FEMA trailer with 3-6 family members packed in like sardines. The government has let these people down. The systems we thought sufficient to respond to a natural disaster have left thousands homeless years after the devastation.

Aside from the physical damage, like worms rising to the surface on a rainy day, the rushing water brought out all the social evils from hiding. Racism, segregation, gangs, misguided religious zeal, and the list could go on. I am not about to describe each of these evils in detail or analyze their presence post or prior to the storm. Nor do I have a 10 step political plan to recovery. But I do know that as fellow human beings they need to be shown love and concern. This is not to say those in the impacted regions have not reached out to one another in wonderful ways. Whenever people told stories it was always the amazing story of their neighbor or someone they knew, even though their own story was just as amazing. Necessity has caused doors to be open and hearts to be soft.

It became apparent on the last trip that solving the problem doesn’t necessarily mean righting political wrongs or building bigger levies. It means listening to stories, helping families wade through the waste heap that use to be their home. It means pulling the hard-to-reach nails, which I happen to be an expert at. That is why I am going.

Support letters always casually throw in the money thing at the end after you have hopefully been softened up. Well here it is:

 

I need a total of $800

 

plane ticket: $490

 

car rental: $60

 

lodging: $150

 

food: $100

 

April 1^st-April 8^th

My roommate Nick Corp has been kind enough to let me use his PAYPAL account, which means you can donate online. Just click the DONATE TO JESSE’S TRIP button at the top of the sidebar. If you want to mail a check here’s my address. You can make them out to THE SOUND(see link below donate button).

416 N. State St.

Bellingham, WA 98225

I know that some may think this is not as personal as a letter. However, I encourage any who read this and have questions, to ask. There is a comments link next to the title of the post and I encourage you to ask for more explanation about the trip, my life in general, and anything else you might think of. The pictures on the right are from my trip to New Orleans last October. Also the links under the “blogroll” heading are a couple other things I am doing in life right now. Please check them out.

Peace and Love,

Jesse Papineau